The Path of Ascension Chapter 374

Chapter 374

“Liz, I don’t like this. It looks… dumb.”

Matt gestured at the mockup of their floating island.

In front of them lay a fully decentralized layout that looked more like an opulent estate than a proper governmental administrative center, which is what their floating island would end up needing to be.

It would be great if it was just for them and family to live on and they wanted to flaunt their power and wealth, but the island was supposed to be a headquarters of their duchy and a governmental hub.

Her mockup might be imposing but it was tacky as shit and made him cringe just looking at the mock up.

Liz gestured to the mockup the design team had made for him in return.

It was a robust and imposing castle with more than enough room for a full administrative center and space for them to have a private area thanks to the battlements built right to the edge of the island.

“That’s even worse. It’s just a battle fort slapped onto a floating island. We are not going to live in that, let alone rule from that. There is no way. We’ve joked about being evil overlords before but if we build this, it’s no longer a joke. Tacky is better than that by a mile.”

Liz glared at the castle, and Matt glared at the estates.

The designer raised a finger and pointed to one of the other prebuilt designs. “We always have the original estate version. It’s quite popular. Or one of our other, more esoteric designs.”

Liz and he both groaned at the reminder.

She had originally championed the original idea but upon seeing the layout, she had asked for a dozen ‘small’ tweaks until she ended up with the tacky estate.

Matt hadn’t minded the idea in the first place but seeing it now, he really didn’t like it.

Through his [AI], he asked Liz once more.

‘Do we want to have the house absorb whatever we end up with? If we change our minds with that, it will change what we can add to the island.’

‘No. The house is better portable. I haven’t changed my mind on that.’

Matt agreed and so let the topic drop. They had discussed it but with the size of their island if they did have the house absorb it, the house would no longer be portable in the way they wanted.

Their house was their house. It wasn’t meant to be a duchy capital and turning it into that would taint the very idea of the house.

Not that they were sure it could eat the island once it was fully fleshed out in the way a duchy capital needed to be. The island wasn’t exactly a battleship, but it had a robust defensive system built-in by default. A system which wasn’t meant to be used in war and therefore didn’t follow the typical rules of combat restrictions. If the house was able to absorb the island and the built-in shields, they would probably be lowered to a Tier 26 level, which would defeat their purpose. The Tier 45 shields might be ‘in emergency only’ use thanks to their expense but for a few hours, they could withstand even the most robust attacks from even Tier 46s.

So long as they saw the attack coming that was.

Which was why Matt wanted to just lean into that. A full defensive castle would bolster the existing defenses, allowing them better passive defenses. They wouldn’t be as vulnerable as most floating islands who could do little if their shields were down.

“But it looks incredibly tacky. I don’t want to live in that, Matt. And defenses don’t matter. Look at Duke Cumulus. Aiden killed him before anyone could raise the shields. Reaction speed means our best defenses are our own power. There is a reason most nobles don’t bother with the higher-Tier shields.”

“That’s an awful argument, Liz. Or at least it doesn’t make me wanting a castle incorrect. A castle would have more passive defenses, as well as strengthen half the full defenses, which would save us from a surprise attack.”

“Any Tier 45 will blow through the building’s passive defenses and anyone weaker than Tier 40, our guards can handle. It’s not necessary. This is a bureaucratic estate. Why are we pretending it’s anything but that? No one has used a duchy capital in a battle for at least a hundred thousand years. They weren’t even really used when Agatha took over. It’s just not done. It’s not necessary.”

Matt threw up his hands in frustration, nearly knocking a napping phoenix Liz off his shoulder.

Apologizing, he walked out of the room and onto the balcony of the building they were in. Needing to move, he took to the air and went to get a view of the island in question.

It looked odd with just their house on it, but he couldn’t imagine it with a bunch of gilded estates on it.

Ok, they weren’t gilded but they might as well be with the materials that were chosen and he wasn’t feeling generous enough to correct himself.

Using an illusion, he sketched the idea out.

He didn’t like it but he also didn’t like arguing with Liz and as dumb as this was, this was their largest argument in at least fifty years.

Did he really care that much?

The answer was easy once he contextualized it like that. He didn’t.

As Liz floated up next to him, he said, “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry. I—”

Chuckling Matt pulled Liz into a hug to the protest of phoenix Liz who smacked human Liz on the head for taking up his shoulder space.

Once they separated Liz gestured out at the island. “If you really want the castle, I can agree to it.”

Matt sighed and rubbed his face. “No, that’s not fair either. It’s your home too. What if we just settle on the original estate design? We can spruce it up a bit more if you like, and if we use better materials and add a few defensive formations to the design, we can beef up our passive defenses.”

Liz nodded and they went back into the building where they intended to limit themselves to two design changes each.

That idea ended up being not needed as the designer had whipped up a model that was a fairly nice blend of what they both wanted.

The center of the island was based around a smaller castle raised up fifty or so feet above everything else with buildings built in and around the castle before surrounding the whole thing with a wall that would act as a formation barrier. With the buildings poking out from over the wall, it would have space for everything they needed.

It wasn’t perfect but Matt could live with it and it was good enough that both of them were fairly happy with the end product.

That was marriage, though.

Compromising and working through their issues.

If only everything could be so easy.

They were both too busy to dwell on their floating island with a thousand and one things to deal with.

Matt took advantage of Allie being only an Ascender chat away to beg a ride to Frederic’s capital as he had been putting off that meeting for almost a year now. He didn’t know exactly what the royal wanted to talk to him for, but with Liz watching over Palustris, he took the opportunity to finish up an errand before they gathered their nobles together for their official inauguration now that their final worlds had arrived.

That meant it was now time for Aster to start getting her worlds, and Matt was excited for her. He was also excited to poke fun at his bond when she complained about her ducal responsibilities as the minutiae set in.

With the way they intended to connect their duchies’ capitals together, they would thankfully be just a teleport away going forward. Having their capitals on the border like that rather than in the center wasn’t the wisest move, as their advisors repeatedly reminded them, but they collectively decided they didn’t care. The duchies were keeping them separate enough already, no way were they adding months of travel distance between themselves.

Or he would be a teleport away if Frederic’s request didn’t pull him from his ducal duties. He had no indication what Frederic wanted of him; Leon had no idea what the other royal wanted but Matt had a feeling it wasn’t going to be an easy request.

After getting Allie to promise that she would check in on him to take him over in a few hours, Matt was dropped off at King Frederic’s capital in an alley near a busy downtown section of a city. They were suspiciously far away from any bakeries which made Matt consider that this wasn’t actually Allie’s normal teleport location but he had no proof.

Taking a few moments, he let his spiritual perception spread across Frederic‘s capital. It was everything Matt hoped Palustris would be in a few generations. Prosperous, peaceful, and populated.

The planet, being a non-aspected high-Tier world, had a population in the trillions and it even had natural lands preserved and protected spread out so anyone could enjoy them. Sure, they were more garden than true wilderness but it wasn’t like the Capital of the Empire which was an ecumenopolis in the truest sense of the word, where any wilderness only existed in spatially expanded buildings, around rifts, or in rifts.

A moment later, Aster arrived and kicked him to the ground, sending a spray of dust at him. “You inconsiderate dick. I would have needed to make my own trip if Allie hadn’t complained about you getting her to teleport you here to me.”

Confused Matt asked, “Wait? Did Frederic ask you to speak with him as well? Leon didn’t mention that?”

“Mara did and as I haven’t seen Leon in a while, I’m not surprised. Still, you should have assumed I’d also be called up.”

Grinning and in a much better mood, Matt pulled Aster into a hug. “How are you? I feel like we haven’t had a chance to talk since our trip.”

“Busy. There are a million and one things to do and it feels like if I’m not overseeing things myself, something inevitably goes wrong. It’s uncharitable but I feel like the only competent person. Or at least one of like ten. But I don’t want to complain seeing you for the first time in person for so long.”

“Tell me about the—” Aster pretended to gag, “fire world.”

Instead of heading directly for Frederic’s floating castle which had landed near the coast of the capital city, they took a walk through the city just taking it all in while he and Aster caught up.

Wanting to extend their time together, they wordlessly stopped for a snack, a deep-fried chocolate on a stick paired with none other than a cup of ice cream from a local branch of Aster’s company.

Knowing it would irritate Aster, he bought plain vanilla ice cream.

“I hate you. Do you know how much work went into our special flavors?” Aster gestured with her chocolate berry blend. “This took close to five hundred people ten years to make it perfect and another five years to ensure we could produce the ice cream locally without compromising on flavor due to local variations. And you, like thirty percent of all ice cream eaters, just buy vanilla. Not even one of the blends that uses vanilla as a base. I know you would enjoy the banana split but did you buy that? Noooo. I hate you and everyone else. Vanilla is a solved flavor. It’s been perfected long before my time. It’s boring. Ughhhh!”

Matt listened to her rant, trying not to laugh as this wasn’t the first time he had heard this exact thing. The moment she paused he interjected, “But it pairs well with the hot snack.”

Aster just glared at him. “I repeat, I hate you.”

Laughing, they continued their meandering tour of the city.

By the time they reached Frederic’s floating island and administrative hub, Matt was feeling… good. Not relaxed because there was a sinking feeling that refused to go away but it wasn’t so bad when covered by ice cream and banter with his bond.

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Before they reached the platform to take people to the island, an impeccably dressed Tier 45 woman appeared next to them with a bow.

“Ascender Titan, Ascender Wraith, King Frederic is expecting you two.”

Nodding, he let himself be guided through dozens of checkpoints and security checks.

There were in fact so many of them he started to question his and Liz’s floating island’s security. Did they need more? Harper’s people had been the ones to set things up in the design phase so it should be as secure as possible but he was now second guessing everything, seeing a much more robust setup.

Those thoughts were shoved aside when they were led into Frederic’s office.